Zelenskyy brings home Azov commanders from Turkey, angering Moscow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine on Saturday bringing home with him five former Azov battalion commanders who had fought in the battle over Mariupol. The Kremlin accused Turkey of violating the prisoner-exchange agreement that was signed last year.
“We are returning home from Türkiye and bringing our heroes home,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko and Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives.”
The Ukrainian president hugged the servicemen at the Istanbul airport and flew them home with him.
Upon news of the release, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had not been informed and that Turkey had promised to keep the former prisoners on its home soil.
The move “goes against the terms of existing agreements,”Peskov said. “The conditions of return were violated by both the Turkish and Kyiv sides,” he said.
“Nobody informed us about this. According to the terms of the agreement, these persons were supposed to stay on the territory of Türkiye until the end of the conflict,” Peskov said.
Peskov claimed that NATO pressured Turkey to violate the agreement to demonstrate solidarity with the alliance ahead of the this week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.
Russian pro-Kremlin analysts claimed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decisions first to support Ukraine’s NATO bid and then let the military commanders return to Ukraine were “an insult to Russia.”
“This shows clearly that Russia finds itself in a situation where violating agreements with Russia has become the norm,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, wrote on Telegram. “Because Russia does not respond. Out of humility or humanism. It needs to respond. Respond in such a way that will instill fear,” Markov said.
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
Source: POLITICO Europe
